


Raised By The Book

by Meiloorun



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 18:38:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2822189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meiloorun/pseuds/Meiloorun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>KORRASAMI. SPOILERS. Asami looped her goggles around her neck and took one last look around the garage. Through the window, the phosphorescent tendrils of the spirit portal clashed against the bleeding pastel sky. At dusk, Korra would be waiting for her there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raised By The Book

Asami looped her goggles around her neck and took one last look around the garage. Through the window, the phosphorescent tendrils of the spirit portal clashed against the bleeding pastel sky. At dusk, Korra would be waiting for her there, but she paused at the dirty window and let her eyes roam over the flickering lights in the valley below.

The terracotta walls of Republic City and its crimson banners were the first thing that Asami learned to love after her mother’s death. Beyond the Sato estate, the rippling flags beckoned to her like friendly airborne spirits, inviting her away from her grief. In daylight they had mocked and taunted her; in the semi-darkness they took on the color of bruises and mirrored her pain.

From ages six to eleven, Asami was confined to the Sato estate by her father’s orders and cared for by a group of carefully-vetted soldiers and tutors. Sure, Hiroshi had provided a private zoo within the estate to entertain her, and gave no limit to her supply of dresses and toys. However, her confinement made her bitter and difficult to please. She was conscious of the fact that as the only heir to an industry that was changing the modern world, she was a priceless investment that needed protecting-- and she resented that even more than the death of her mother.

Raised during the industrial renaissance  and enamored of red ribbons, Asami grew up with every comfort and protection within the boundaries of the estate. She would fall asleep surrounded by her texts bought from Earth Kingdom libraries, building machines in her mind that could take her leagues away from the Sato mansion. As she grew bigger, rather than sleep in her old room without her mother to tuck her in at night, she opted to stake out the garage, and would fall asleep in the back of some half-repaired auto, blanketed by schematics and the scent of gasoline. It was almost as if she was not really home at all, preparing herself for a journey around the world that she could only take in her dreams.

Some nights she would take off in a modified war balloon, accompanied by the handsome Fire Nation prince to seek out new colonies of dragons. In others, she walked alone through vast forests and chased the phantom laughter of her mother between the trees. In every dream, she waved goodbye to her weary father and chased the golden nodes of the sun to some fantastic, far-off destination. But eventually, the creaking of the garage doors would startle her awake, and with her dreams suspended around her in secret, she prepared herself for another day of confinement.

Only after her father been thoroughly convinced by Asami’s master of arms did he concede to let her leave the estate and be reintroduced to Republic City, on the condition that she was never to be left unattended. On those evenings out with her sifu and her personal guard, she felt a comfort that had been absent for many years--last experienced at home in her mother’s lap, paging through books that mapped the many wonders spread across the globe.

The city was crawling with the beast-like machines that her father devoted all his time to. The Sato name was plastered on billboards for all to see, and occasionally the smiling face of her father would wink at her from a cast-away newspaper, never completely letting her fall out of his sight. They raced through the bustling traffic with the other pedestrians, staking out the city on foot. They would walk down to the harbor and peruse the wares of the merchants, bartering for salted texts and bolts of exotic silks from the Fire Nation. They always ducked into the noodle bar that served hot kelp and star anise in heaping portions and the slurped them up under the signature crystal lanterns belonging to the Northern Water Tribe. On a rare night, they would go together to the pro-bending arena. Even though her father possessed a private box, the group would squeeze in with the crowds like canned sardines and pass around a small flask of spiced rum, which she was allowed a little sip from, as long as kept her hair tucked under her hat and the obscenities to a minimum.

Occasionally she would crack the spine of a novel, but engineering manuals were her religious texts now. The numbers and lines made little sense at first, but with practice, she deciphered the language of machines. She had once thought of her father’s work as simply as a distraction from the bitter absence of her mother, but she now understood that the industry that raised her was an organism crafted by his careful guidance. Walking the streets of Republic City was all the evidence she needed of his success. The foundation of Future Industries was built on Hiroshi Sato’s desire to move on from grief-- and Asami clung to that wish as well.

Asami planned and built her own scooter on her fifteenth birthday, and a week later, she passed her preliminary cycling test, earning a special recommendation from the examiner to grant her Satomobile license early. Her father’s caution bloomed into pride, and on her next birthday, she was walking the assembly lines alongside him collaborating with the most accomplished mechanics and engineers in Republic City-- all while still sneaking into the pro-bending crowds to cheer on her favorite teams after dark.

With her new allowances, Asami strove to prove herself to her father. She would spend late hours in the drafting room with the engineers revising and printing copies for their mechanics. As a permanent resident of the garage-- now having moved into the privacy of the loft-- she learned everything from how to change oils and fluids in the auto, to how to break them down with nothing but a blow torch. Instead of learning an instrument like most girls her age, she insisted on test-driving all the cars that passed through the estate, even the produce truck that smelled of hot cabbage. All so that when she finally had a chance to leave it all behind, she was prepared for anything.

It seemed so long ago when she had bowled over Mako on Main Street and opened a new chapter in her life with new determination. She loved the city, she loved her work, and perhaps, she had thought, she could love him and his friends too. Back then, it took little effort to put on a nice dress and open her father’s pocketbook to get what she wanted. She thought back to the gala when she hung on the arm of the most handsome boy in the room. Smiling to herself, she lingered on her memory of being introduced to Avatar, who wore the dated wool fashions of the Water Tribe and what appeared to be a permanent scowl.

Korra would be waiting for her already, Asami thought, tugging on her leather gloves. Maybe Korra was unaware, but she had the habits of a nervous hunter, with the tendency to stake out their meeting places long in advance. Korra liked to travel light anyhow; after her goodbyes to her friends, she would have spent a good hour just wrestling with Naga in the bison stable and then left Air Temple Island with a bag of wool accouterments and dried kelp. Asami could see her in her minds-eye at the edge of viney crater surrounded by gleeful spirits, idly walking on the vines with her light gait as if she were a trapeze artist.

And if Asami was correct in assuming that they were contemplating the same thing, she had no need to linger with the past. 

Asami pulled her goggles over her eyes and jumped onto the bike idling in the driveway. Her board of directors were to watch over the company in her absence, which put her at ease, but Asami still hesitated at the iron gates. She looked back at her childhood home, trying to recall what she had hated so much about it in her youth, but no clear thought came to mind. She admired the familiar white columns wreathed in ivy and the marble staircase that led up to to grand foyer where a portrait of the Sato family smiled down on its guests. She could envision the golden wallpaper and the scattered bolts and nails abandoned in dusty corners of the rooms.

Their home was never perfect, in spite of all their riches and celebrity, and Asami took comfort in that fact now. Because she had compromised for her losses at such an early age, she had always dreamed of leaving her home behind, but Asami now knew differently; that it wasn’t the walls that kept her in or the roads that would lead her away, but that her true home called to her even from the greatest distances. Whether it was a few miles, or an ocean full of sea monsters and icebergs that filled the space between. That true love could make any distance disappear.

Asami kicked open the gates and sped towards the golden ladder in the sky. She would let nothing stand in her way, even if she did not know fully where she was going, or what would happen there. Those details didn't matter so much as the fact that she didn't have to make this journey alone. 

Korra was calling Asami home. 

**Author's Note:**

> I may write more...because of the feelings. Thank you for reading!


End file.
